Griffin iTrip Auto Universal Plus FM Transmitter for Portable MP3 Players (2010 Packaging)

If the signal strength coming out of this was a little stronger, I would have rated it a lot higher. The clarity comes and goes depending on where I am, where my MP3 player is sitting in the car, and whether I'm touching either the MP3 player or cabling. Yesterday almost no static at all but today it sounds like crumbing up tin foil. For those that are having problems locating a free station, it is possible to get down to 87.9. It's not in the crappy manual. Just press and hold both the - and + buttons until you see a US and then hit either the - or + key to change to International. I saw other remarks on other versions of this that stated that switching to MONO made a big difference in quality but neither makes a big difference for me at this time.

Bought this with a little trepidation because of reviews here and elsewhere, but it turns out it's pretty good value all things considered. I bought it primarily for the FM transmitter and if that was all it had it's not bad, but considering it comes with a charger built in (which can run upwards of half the price of this product on their own) makes the price all that much better. It charged my iPhone 3G just fine (haven't tried other phones) and the FM quality gets four out of five. Living near Washington DC makes finding an empty channel a bit of a challenge, but even then it's only sporadic interference and it's gone as quickly as it comes. My car's antenna is in the back and one thing I found helps reception is make sure the cable coming from the phone is as straight as possible (ie not doubled up on itself). I'm going to experiment with extending that part of the cable to improve reception and make it more convenient since sitting in the passenger seat is ok, but not ideal...Read more

This FM transmitter is fairly inexpensive, but produces audio with more static than I've experienced with other products. It might be good enough if you listen to spoken word (like me), but doesn't work very well for music.

I live in a very large metropolis where there aren't any truly "empty" frequencies. The Griffin iTrip blocks out the interference well enough to play audio, but there's persistent, low-volume static that I can't get rid of. It's a lot like listening to a radio station that is just a little too far away. In my case the static remains low and constant, rarely interfering with the conversation on my podcasts, but is always audible. The transmitter might work better in a rural area. But, I have seen other transmitters work passably in my city, so this one must be weaker than those.

Despite the signal strength problems, there are several things I like about this transmitter. The "Smart Scan" feature did a good job of picking a frequency. It...Read more